Sports
Local Hockey

Greyhounds rally to edge Steelheads

Minus the Ontario Hockey League's leading scorer, the Soo Greyhounds needed contributions from other sources Sunday.

Enter Ryan Kirkup.

The rookie centre scored his first career goal and drew praise from his head coach for his strong all-round performance.

Kirkup netted the tying marker with 11 minutes to play and Andrew Fritsch produced the winner with just 2:35 left in regulation, as the Hounds rallied to edge the Mississauga Steelheads 4-3 before 2,814 at the Hershey Centre.

“We're two goals better when he's in the lineup,” Sheldon Keefe said of star centre Nick Cousins, suspended indefinitely after incurring a five-minute major and game misconduct for checking from behind in Friday's 4-3 overtime loss in London. “But Ryan Kirkup gave us some legs and jump. He energized our team. And Fritsch definitely made some big plays for us late.”

“Coach gave me a huge opportunity and it feels great to contribute,” said Kirkup, the Soo's eighth-round choice in the 2011 draft.

With the visitors trailing 3-2, the 17-year-old Toronto native was placed between Fritsch and Sergey Tolchinsky at the start of the final period.

Kirkup was cutting in front of the Mississauga goal at the 8:59 mark when Fritsch, on his backhand, made what the young centre described as “a gorgeous pass.”

With his stick on the ice, Kirkup said he “was just trying to direct it toward the net.”

The shot snuck under the arm of Steelheads netminder Spencer Martin to tie the score.

Late in the period, Tyler Gaudet fed a streaking Fritsch who redirected the puck up high and past Martin for what proved to be the winner.

Tolchinsky assisted on both goals and finished with three helpers on the day.

“I beat my D (defenceman) to the net, Gaudet found my stick and I knew I'd have to deflect it over the goalie,” Fritsch said. “It felt great. We needed that win so badly.”

Though they were hardly impressive -- “We were less than our best, for sure,” admitted Keefe -- the victory gave the Soo five of a possible six points on a three-game road trip that began Thursday with a 6-3 win in Sarnia.

While improving to 33-21-3-2, with 71 points the Hounds clinched at least a tie for the eighth-and-final Western Conference playoff spot.

With eight straight wins to close the regular season, the eighth-place Windsor Spitfires would also finish with 71 points.

The Soo is sixth in the conference, two points up on idle Sarnia (33-25-0-3) with two games in hand.

Fifth-place Guelph (34-20-1-4) leads the Hounds by just two points and both clubs have nine games remaining.

In the West Division race, the Soo has moved to within six points of first-place Plymouth (34-17-5-4) and the Hounds have a game in hand on the Whalers.

“The positive sign for us is we took five out of six points on this trip without playing our best hockey. We were just OK,” said Keefe.

Team captain Colin Miller called Sunday's outcome a character win.

“Nick is obviously a huge part of our team,” said Miller, whose 16th goal of the season tied the game 2-2 midway through the middle stanza. “It's not easy to play without him, but it's great everyone stepped up. It's good to show people we're not one-dimensional.”

Michael Schumacher, with a nifty shot that beat Martin high to the short side, had the other Hounds goal. Rookie defenceman Mac Clutsam drew an assist on the play for his first OHL point.

Kristoff Kontos was a standout in defeat scoring a pair of power-play goals. Lucas Venuto was the other Mississauga shooter to beat Matt Murray as the home team outshot the Hounds 31-26.

While disappointed with how his club played through 40 minutes -- “We didn't have much zip,” Keefe said – the coach was especially pleased with the way the Hounds protected their narrow lead late in the contest.

“We played two minutes of the hardest hockey I've seen our guys play,” said Keefe, whose club was short-handed for the final 1:37 after Brandon Alderson took what the coach described as “a selfish and uncalled for” roughing minor at 18:23.

With the Mississauga net empty, Hounds winger David Broll blocked a shot in front to help preserve the win.

“It wasn't pretty, but we managed to grind it out,” said Keefe, whose club plays host to Sudbury Wednesday at 7:07 p.m. at Essar Centre. “It was good to see us buckle down at the end.”

“We feel we can get better out of both,” said Keefe, who spoke of how the two players have struggled of late. “We need both of them to help us the rest of the way and this was just an opportunity for them to take a look at things.”

Following Wednesday's clash with the Wolves the Hounds are home to Guelph Friday and Peterborough Sunday.